


tis the season

by forgottenwords



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Bisexual Lance (Voltron), Confessions, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Flirting, Fluff, Friendship, Gay Keith (Voltron), Klancember, Klancember 2018, M/M, Mutual Pining, Oblivious Keith (Voltron), Oblivious Lance (Voltron), Pining, Pining Keith (Voltron), Post Season 7, Tags to be added, flustered Lance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-30
Updated: 2018-12-03
Packaged: 2019-09-02 18:46:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,712
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16792627
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/forgottenwords/pseuds/forgottenwords
Summary: A collection of fics for klancember 2018. Prompt 3: Secrets; "I was lying when I explained why I chose you to go home when we were in that game show.”





	1. Beginnings

**Author's Note:**

> So this is a collection for #klancember prompts which can be found on twitter! I hope y'all enjoy :) I can also be found on twitter @xoklancexo

He was crying. The roar of celebration continued to permeate their vicinity, but he couldn’t hear anything over the pounding of his heart against his ribcage. Gaze focused on his friends face, unable to turn away or move an inch at the astounding rush of feeling overflowing within him.

Lance was crying amidst the joy and triumph, and all he could do was watch. Keith tried to take a step forward, but the sheer force of radiance and solemn elation had him frozen. His body hurt from the many hours they spent flying the past two days. From the push and pull of trying not to acknowledge that the universe’s fate was placed upon their shoulders, but all well knowing that the lives of the innocents, the lives of the people still on earth were counting on them - counted - on them.

It was over and Lance was crying with a smile, glancing upwards towards the sky and observing the jets soaring through the clouds as they set off missiles or fireworks, he couldn’t tell which was sending loud explosions through the air.

Keith swallowed, body on edge and wanting nothing more than to reach out and wipe away the tears falling down the blue paladins face. He stumbled when the boy turned his head and smiled wider than before. That smile had him break free from his stance and he shook himself, walking those few feet to stand beside Lance. The boys smile didn’t falter though his tears abated and he took on a more ecstatic demeanor.

He smiled back, the scar on his cheek pulling slightly. A remembrance of the battle that they had finally overcome. He wasn’t going to ask why Lance had cried, because he didn’t think that there were any words to describe what they were feeling at the moment, let alone the tears that had escaped in an intense realization that it was over.

Lance’s smile grew. “Keith. We...we did it.”

There was a gradual hint of affection that began to surrender from the tight hold he had over this type of emotion. The type of feelings that could ruin him, that could ruin everything. Though in the moment, the red paladin couldn’t prevent it from showing on his face, a flushed adoration which made him speechless.

God. He was so gone on this boy.

“Dude! We did it, holy shit. We won. _We won! _”__

Lance erupted in laughter, throwing an arm around his shoulder which almost hit him in the face in his enthusiastic exclamation.

“Yeah. We did.” The words were soft in volume, warm as his violet eyes continued to narrow in on the other boys face. Keith grinned as Lance still hung off his shoulder, waving at their friends across the way.

It was the ending of an era, an era of war and suffering that their world had only been privy to for 5 years. But it was over. And in the midst of that ending, a new beginning would emerge. Slow and timid, as feelings flowed like honey and would bloom like pollinated flowers as the years would pass.


	2. Red and Blue

“Favourite colour?”

A round of groaning could be heard over the intercoms, as the neverending questions came and went during their impromptu game of ‘20 questions’. Hence the neverending description. Though, this question was seemingly silly in nature. Childish, given the circumstances that they were currently in.

Of course, the one to vouch the idea had been Lance. Cause’ it’s not like being confined with the same people for years in space could have ever precipitated the sort of knowledge that comes from asking simple questions. Right?

At least, that’s what Keith had thought until they all started conniving against him to get as much information out of him as possible. Each time he picked a person to answer a question, they immediately asked one back. Lance had started it, the first time after he had asked him where he would go if he could pick any place on earth?

“Lance we’re in space. Why would I pick somewhere on earth after all this time?”

“Keithhh come on, there still has to be someplace you would go? You can’t _not_ answer, it’s against the rules!”

Considering every single person he cared for was also currently in space, he didn’t see the reason why he should reply. When he had said exactly that, the animated boy had toned down with a calm “touche”.

So he had swallowed the bitterness wanted to escape in his words and answered. And not just because he was sort of curious at what Lances response would be to his prefered colour.

“Uh, blue?”

There was a long pause. Longer than was comfortable by their standards. He could mentally see the equivalent of Black raising an eyebrow at him. His whole life things had seemed a vibrant, hot mess of red. Since his father's death it was like he couldn’t escape it. With the moment that Allura had told him that he was destined to be the Red Paladin, it had sunk like a heavy weight in his chest. Brought up old memories of blazing heat, and opaque smoke that haunted his dreams. Though he would never trade his time with the Red lion, and probably a surprise to the rest of the crew besides Shiro, he enjoyed the calm peace that the colour blue brought within him.

Lance finally whispered across the comm, seemingly shocked, “Wait. Your favourite colour is blue?”

Nobody spoke a word. It was a slightly uncomfortable silence, one that made him want to fidget in his seat.

Keith looked up at Shiro beside him, imploring for why his answer was so shocking, but the man merely raised his eyebrows and shrugged his shoulders. His face held an unannounced amusement, and Keith wanted to hit him.

He sighed in defeat. “I don’t really know why everybody went quiet, but yeah it’s blue. Lance?”

There was a muffled “shit” thrown across the airwaves, and a large crashing sound that ended in an “oof”.

“Uh shoot?” The voice was crackly, and echoed.

Pidge piped up suddenly, sounding rather smug. “I thought you were the one who did the shooting Lance?”

There was another pause. “I am currently sprawled out on the floor, in a tiny amount of pain, thanks for asking guys, so I’m not going to dignify that with a response.”

“His face is also a quite peculiar shade, I never knew humans had the ability to change colour.”

A chorus of laughter came from the rest of the crew, as Lance groaned loudly. “Thank you, Romelle.”

Keith grinned, imagining the flustered state the boy was in.

“So Lance, what’s _your_ favourite colour?”

A couple ticks went by, “If I say red are you guys going to beat me up about it?”

His hands almost slipped off the controls. Almost. Was it strange that his pulse quickened at the thought that their favourite colours were the embodiment of each other? It shocked the smile off his face, but he felt increasingly better than before. His answer felt somewhat surreal. Keith couldn’t believe that as much as they hadn’t gotten along in the beginning, and had now settled into a tentative friendship that this was were they were.

He didn’t know how to response.

Hunk was the first one to speak. “Aww, the Red and Blue’s favourite colours are each other, how sweet!”

This time his hands did fall off the controls, not that it actually mattered given that they were cruising on autopilot, and he threw them into the air.

“Hunk.”

“What?” He sounded so innocent.

Pidge snickered, “I think you’re making them uncomfortable.”

“Well I think it’s lovely. A true testament to how you two have changed during your time as Paladins.”

Lance groaned again. “Allura you’re not helping.”

Keith smiled at the laughs that echoed over the comms, but his pulse didn’t slow down until minutes later. Maybe Allura was right, their dynamic had changed since they had come to space. He sort of hoped that was due to a natural progression in their relationship and not just because they were teammates. Red and Blue. Blue and Red. That’s who they were, one the outside. On the inside, maybe they were inverted versions of each other.


	3. Secrets

Deciding that enough was enough, Lance ceased the pacing of his room and made the resolve to knock on the door on the other side of the hall.

He had been awake for hours now, the hands on the clock circling around and around, teasing him. His thoughts had mimicked the device, circling round in his head. Trying to come up with the right words to say to get his thoughts and emotions across in the best way. The white walls of the hospital were bright from the light shining in the window from outside, though his eyes had adjusted to the darkness hours ago. He took a couple more steps and turned to face the entrance of the door. This was a good idea, wasn’t it?

Lance bit his lip, fiddling with the ends of his sleeves on his long-sleeve shirt.

Keith had been acting strange ever since he arrived back to the team and he needed to get to the bottom of it. It bothered him that their tentative friendship seemed to be sliding backwards after everything that they’d been through lately. His behaviour was peculiar, Keith still trusted him to lead the team and make decisions when needed, but he had been so...distant and rude at times. Mainly towards him, though he did notice that the boy was also cooler in regards to the other paladins as well. It was unnerving, given the ground they managed to make during Shiro’s disappearance.

Lance wanted things to go back to the way they were before. There was only a slight worry that maybe they had both changed too much for that to happen.

Pulling his arms downwards and standing tall, he took a deep breath and started walking towards the door. Reaching for the doorknob felt like a life-changing tilt that would either crash and burn, or be fine for once. Until the war was over he knew things weren’t going to be okay. But this could at least be a step in the right direction.

Muffled movement from the other side of the door made him stop, hand closed around the cool metal.

 _“Dammit. Come on man, just knock on his door_.”

His heart pounded loudly, blood rushing to his head. Keith was on the other side of the door, sounding rather nervous and frustrated with himself. There was a lump in his throat and he couldn’t will his hand to move. Why was Keith almost knocking on his door at four in the morning?

He didn’t want to get his hopes up, but maybe the other boy was feeling just as restless as him? Unable to sleep due to the conflicting emotions being sent between them, so much so that the only way to resolve it was to knock on his door in the middle of the night.

_“Fuck.”_

At the strangled murmur, Lance cracked open the door and poked his head around the side.

Keith stood facing the other way, a hand fisted in his hair and other one clenched at his hip. He was barefoot and tense, orange hospital clothes stark against his pale skin. He let the hand fall out of his hair and sighed in defeat before taking a step towards his ajared door.

“Wait!”

His voice shot across the space, interrupting the vague silence in the hall. The others were likely asleep and carefree in their dreams. Lance cringed at the way Keith tensed further, his shoulders locking up as he spun around in surprise. Dark eyes wide and glassy, cheeks an imperceptibly shade different than the rest of his skin, mouth open when he sucked in a breath.

“I uh, thought I heard something outside my door and just wanted to see what it was. I didn’t mean to scare you.”

His hands clenched around the solid wood, moving his upper body from his hiding space. “Keith?” He asked softly when the other boy didn’t make a move to speak. Lance frowned, confused. Why was Keith acting so bizarre once again, this time in a completely different manner. The elder boy shook his head and took another deep breath.

“Shit, Lance. Sorry. I didn’t mean to wake you up.”

The frown stayed on his face, “Are you sure? And it’s okay man, I um, actually wanted to see if you wanted to come in?”

Lance pushed the door open further, standing straight and looking intently at the keyed up boy in front of him. His voice sounded as stunned as he looked.

“But I shouldn’t keep you awake-

“Dude. You were going to knock on my door weren’t you?”

Keith closed his mouth.

“That’s what I thought, so just come in? Please?”

Lance fought off the soft hearted pang that shot threw him when Keith nodded. He knew that this was weird, in one aspect. They had never been the closest of friends, even though he could tell with time that they may change, but the fact that Keith had been struggling at the same time to try and talk to him in the middle of the night was somewhat eye opening.

That meant that he also felt like there was something wrong with their dynamic. The way their relationship had taken a backseat to everything that was going on. It was understandable, but it hurt. He didn’t want things to go back to the way they were in the beginning. When he was just a little too jealous, and Keith was just a little too fiery without self-control, wild and striking.

He tried to keep his reaction in check. The beat of his heart was becoming an ever-present nuisance, and the fact that he was so aware of every word, every motion Keith was making...he knew that whatever was happening between them, _right now_ , was the culmination of many, many days spent goading one another. Days spent trying to get a rise out of Keith, try and failing to connect with him, trying to make the strange sensations in his chest go away by being rude and blunt.

Lance sat down on his bed after motioning for Keith to come through the door. The other closed it quietly, and turned around meekly, slowly sitting down on the chair in the corner of the sterile room. He crossed his arms not knowing where to start.

“Okay. So I did want to talk to you.”

An eyebrow raised in amusement, “I kind of noticed with you pacing back and forth outside my door.”

Keith averted his gaze. “Lance...I just...wanted to tell you something and I don’t know why it’s so hard. God.”

The Blue Paladin could tell that the other was unhinged, not himself, unsure. He was nervous, and biting his lip. He had only seen Keith do that when he was truly stressed out and debating a serious dilemma. Everything about the boys posture and eyes made him want to offer some sort of comfort, but Lance knew that that wouldn’t be an option at this point.

The Red Paladin exhaled, “I just wanted to say that...I can count on you.”

Lance stared at the other boy, breath caught in his throat. He opened his mouth to respond but no words would come out. He was confused at the words that echoed through the room, yet hanging onto every syllable that his ears recognized in that deep throaty tone. Keith counted on him. He was still confused. It wasn’t a secret that as the leader of Voltron he placed an ounce of trust in him. There must have been something else that made him come to his door in the middle of the night.

Keith’s tone changed when he spoke next, his eyes closing as though he was giving away his deepest secret. Face looking defeated, guilty and wanting all at once.

“And that I was lying when I explained why I chose you to go home when we were in that game show.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Will be continued in the next installment :)


End file.
